Researchers develop new super-sized disc

Government-funded researchers have developed a super-sized optical disc capable of storing as much information as 20 DVDs or 150 CD-Rs.

Or, put another way, that's enough to store 20 of your favorite movies, or 150 CDs of your favorite songs.

In all, the discs can hold more than 100 gigabytes of information, the National Science Council said yesterday.

The achievement comes by using "near-field" optical technology, according to the science council.

A research team led by Tsai Din-ping (蔡定平), a physicist at National Taiwan University, adapted the technology to be used in the manufacture of optical discs.

Tsai said the super-sized discs would be used in the home as consumers seek ways to store large movie or music files.

The 100-gigabyte disc is larger than any other similar product in the world, the researcher said.

Tsai said that a research institute under Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry was the only other group developing high-density optical discs.

Basically, near-field optical technology allows the bits of information on a disc to be spaced closer together. This increases the disc's storage size.

Near-field optical technology is also being applied to semiconductor production, which could one day lead to smaller line-width geometries beyond present limitations. The advance would allow a chip's circuitry to be etched closer together.

That would allow for faster microchips and speedier computers, scientists say.

Tsai said near-field optics in the area of digital data was first developed under the leadership of Eric Betzig at Bell Labs in the US in 1992.

Two years later, Tsai said, Taiwanese scientists also began to study the field.

"We've applied [the technology] to high-density optical discs because Taiwan is the largest optical-disc producer in the world," Tsai said.

Indeed, Ritek Corp (徠德科技), the world's largest producer of optical discs, also participated in the development of the super-sized disc. The three year project began in 2000.

Other NTU physicists involved in the project include Chang Ching-ray (張慶瑞), Chern Ming-yau (陳銘堯) and Huang Huei-li (黃暉理) and their counterpart at National Taiwan Normal University, Liu Wei-chih (劉威志).

The NT$23 million that has been poured into the project has led to several patents in Taiwan, Japan, the US, China and the EU.

Tsai said the high-density disc, which will be rewritable, can be used in existing DVD drives.

Still, industry standards need to be worked out before the product can reach consumers.

Wang Shyh-yeu (王式禹), director of R&D at Ritek, said the company anticipates the super-sized disc will be available by 2004, when digital televisions are expected to be common.

Wei Che-ho (魏哲和), chairman of the National Science Council, said yesterday that the development of the disc demonstrates that "pure science" can make contributions to the development of the high-tech industry.